News Headlines:

Emirates India revenue up 24% to $1.7 bn

27 Jun 2011, 1933 hrs IST, AGENCIES

Dubai-based
carrier Emirates, for which India is the largest operational market with 185
flights a week, said its revenues from the sub-continent grew a solid 24% in the
fiscal ended March to $1.7 billion, but said it expects passenger growth to be
just around 4% in the current financial year. “We had a robust growth last
year from this market with revenues from the Indian subcontinent touching $1.7
billion. India is and will continue to be a key market for us. While last year
we flew 10 per cent more passengers from here over the previous fiscal, we are
looking at growing 3-4% this fiscal, Emirates Airlines Vice-President for India
and Nepal Orhan Abbas said in Mumbai on Monday (June 26).

On muted
growth forecast for this fiscal, he said, “We have been growing above the
industry average in these years. While the market pie is growing bigger, the
market is also getting consolidated. Of course, this 3-4% growth is from a large
base of around 2.5 million passengers we flew last year from this market.”
The airline, which connects 10 cities in India, has around 54,000 seats a week
from the country and it enjoys an average load factor of 75-80 per cent. Total
passenger traffic from India in FY11 grew over 10%, while in the first three
months of this fiscal, it grew around 4%.

On whether he is looking
at more flights or more locations from the country, Abbas answered in the
negative, saying bilaterals are a government subject. He also declined to give a
direct answer to a query whether he will be looking at more flights if
bilaterals are enhanced. Whether there will be a price war on the Gulf sector
with the India's private low-cost carrier IndiGo planning to enter the lucrative
route in September, he said, “If the entry of Air India Express did not
impact us, I don’t think we will see any impact with the entry of
IndiGo.” “This is not the first time we have faced competition.
Pricing depends on the market conditions and we have a dynamic pricing
mechanism.”

On flying the jumbo A380 into the country, he said
as of now he has no plans. But Abbas said, the airline will soon be opening the
second business lounge at the Delhi airport. Emirates currently operate from
Delhi, Mumbai, Kochi, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad,
Kozhikode and Thiruvananthapuram. It also has unilateral code share agreement
with Jet Airways. On market, Abbas said, overall, Emirates has 45 per cent
market share in terms of booking to Dubai, and 18% on the Mumbai-New York
sector. In the India-Britain sector, it has 30% market share, to France 40%, to
Germany 20%, to South Africa 70% and to the US 31%. The airline is eyeing a 14%
growth in the India-US sector this year, Abbas said.

The Emirates
Group, owned by the Dubai Government, reported a 31% spike in profit to $1.6
billion, over $1.1 billion, in the year ended March 2011, he said, adding
revenue rose $15.6 billion from $12.4 billion. Emirates, which entered India in
1985, globally flew 31.4 million passengers from 113 destinations in 66
countries. The airline has launched special fares to cash in on the ongoing
`Summer Smiles' in Dubai festival for travel until September 15. The Dubai
package begins at Rs 52,190 and comprises a three-night stay for two adults and
two kids, Emirates Western India Manager Sunil Kallyat said. It is also offering
special fares to global locations like Dubai, London, Frankfurt, Houston and New
York.